NEWS IN BRIEFFrame Technology is now shipping a new version of the leading page-layout program for the NeXT platform. FrameMaker 3.0 offers a robust new tables package that integrates completely with the FrameMaker environment. Another new feature called Conditional Text allows you to simultaneously prepare multiple versions of a document by flagging sections and assigning conditions for omission and inclusion by version. Color PostScript output is finally supported, and completely new documentation is offered. FrameMaker 3.0 costs $995 (on floppies only) plus an optional $195 for 13 international dictionaries. Upgrades for registered users are $150. Phone 408/433-3311.

Steve Jobs, president and CEO of NeXT, has been named as one of 28 private-sector members of the President's Export Council, which advises the President on government matters affecting international trade. Jobs was chosen because of his "exemplary entrepreneurial role" and "outstanding leadership" in computers and technology, said Robert A. Mosbacher, secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Quark has put out official word that it has dropped development of its XPress page-layout program for NeXT. In response to inquiries from users, Quark replied with this written explanation: "The decision to support a platform is based on a number of factors, most notably the system's penetration into the professional publishing market. To date, NeXT has failed to make any real inroads into these areas. If this were to change, we would, of course, re-evaluate this decision."

Hayes Microcomputer and Marble Associates have collaborated to permit NeXT computers connected by modem to communicate with each other as if they were connected to the same LAN. The new Hayes adapter lets the NeXT connect at 38,400 baud through standard phone lines using ISDN, which is now being introduced by regional Bell operating companies throughout the country. Phone 404/840-9200.

Pixar, Steve Jobs's other brainchild, has signed on with Walt Disney Pictures to produce and distribute one or more full-length, computer-animated feature films. Pixar is best known for shorts like Knickknack and Tin Toy, which garnered the first Academy Award ever bestowed on an entirely computer-generated film. Given the normal production cycle in the movie industry, look for the first of the new offerings sometime in 1993.

Objective Technologies expects a fall ship date for OTProvide, the first third-party add-on to Lotus Development Corporation's Improv spreadsheet that utilizes Improv's Application Programming Interface Toolkit. OTProvide is an SQL generator and database link, browser, and retriever. It allows the end user to introduce data and information from Sybase databases into Improv spreadsheets through a point-and-click subsystem that searches databases and servers and mimics the NeXT File Viewer. Future releases will support any database that is supported by NeXT's upcoming DBKit, according to Sheridan Harrison, product manager.

Absoft has updated its FORTRAN 77 compiler for the NeXT to version 3.1 to be fully compatible with NeXT's 68040 machines. The company claims that the compiler produces code that executes up to two times faster than any other FORTRAN available for the NeXT.